How to echo some code inside a while loop? - php

Question

I have been thinking for hours but i still cant get a solution for this
Basically what i want to do is to echo a separator inside a while, it should be something like this
$num = 1;
while($num < 3){
echo 'dog';
//function to stop while
echo 'separator';
//function to continue while
echo 'cat';
$num++;
}
I want to get this output
dog
dog
dog
separator
cat
cat
cat
I dont know if i explained myself well but hope you understand. Thank you very much in advance.
Update: I know i can make this with 2 while functions but is it possible to make it using only one while function?

Answer 1

definitely yes you can with one while ~function. :)
function OnlyOneWhileFunction($echoThis, $howManyTimes){
$i = 1;
while($i <= $howManyTimes){
echo $echoThis."\r\n";
$i++;
}
}
OnlyOneWhileFunction('dog', 3);
echo 'separator';
OnlyOneWhileFunction('cat', 3);

Answer 2

$num = 0;
$dogs = '';
$cats = '';
$seperator = 'seperator';
while($num < 3){
$dogs .= 'dog';
$cats .= 'cat';
$num++;
}
echo $dogs . $seperator . $cats;
Save the output of each of the dogs and cats then combine at end.

Answer 3

Alternate solution:
$items = array_reverse(array("cat","dog"));
$output = array();
while(count($items) > 0)
{
$item = array_pop($items);
$output[] = implode("\n", array_fill(0, 3, $item));
}
echo implode("\nseparator\n", $output);
You can replace \n with <br> for HTML output (or use nl2br).

Answer 4

Try this:
<?php
$num = 0;
while($num < 7){
if($num < 3)
echo 'dog';
elseif($num == 3)
echo 'separator';
elseif($num>3)
echo 'cat';
echo "<br>";
$num++;
}
?>

Answer 5

You would be better off using a C style for loop and a function call for this:
$recho = function($out, $limit) {
for ($x=0; $x<$limit; $x++) {
echo $out . "\n";
}
}
$recho('dog',3);
echo "seperator\n";
$recho('cat',3);
Put this inside a <pre> on a webpage to get your line breaks, or replace the "\n" with <br> tags.

Answer 6

The following code should work:
$num = 0;
while($num <= 6){
if($num < 3) echo 'dog<br/>';
else if($num == 3) echo 'separator<br/>';
else echo 'cat<br/>';
$num++;
}

Answer 7

Here's another approach if you wanted n number of options and assuming each option is iterated over the same number of times. I'd do some cleanup but this is a quick and dirty approach:
<?php
/**
* Loops items with separator every nth time
* #param array list of items
* #param integer number of iterations
* #param string separator text
*/
function loopItemsWithSeparator(array $items, $count, $separator) {
$items = array_reverse($items);
while(!empty($items)) {
$item = array_pop($items);
for($i = 0; $i < $count; $i++) {
echo $item . "\n";
}
if (count($items) > 0) {
echo($separator . "\n");
}
}
}
loopItemsWithSeparator(array('dog', 'cat', 'bird'), 3, 'separator');
?>